We had our first Tasty Wednesday this week!  Once a month or so, we gather ingredients to create a tasty but educational treat.  We are practicing following directions, writing directions, sequencing, and writing a review.  I plan on assembling a book for each kiddo at year's end.  Thanks to parents who offered to send in ingredients...I'll let you know when/what we need!!
Picture day is this Thursday...don't forget to send in the form and payment if you chose to order photos this year.
This week is also conference week.  We are participating in student led conferences-we really enjoyed them last year.  The kiddos have ownership of their learning and grades, and they did a fine job of explaining things to their parents.  I plan on letting half of the students participate this week, with the other half getting their turn in November.  If you feel you need to meet before then...by all means let me know!  Text, call, email...whatever works for you!
Our fall OAA test is coming up on October 8th.  If you are not getting Mr. Thornsberry's phone messages, please let me or Erin know...lots of good info.  We are really focusing on being in school that week...on time and ready to shine!  Room 17 also had 3 days in a row of perfect attendance AND perfect homework completion last week...going for a new record this week.
Don't forget to check out Room 17 on facebook...I post lots of pictures there.  I'm trying to find out how to connect this blog to that page...if anyone has mad computer skills and knows how to do this...let me know!!
Our big rocks this week and probably next:

• main idea/details
  
• rounding check it out!
• nouns check it out!
• prefixes/suffixes
• our community
• animal life cycles.  check it out!
• personal narratives

Just a short post this weekend-gotta watch my Steelers.  Don't judge.  Win or lose, when you're from Pittsburgh, it's in your blood!
Ten school days until we take our OAA test!  We've been talking about not getting nervous(we think a tiny bit of nerves is ok!) and trying our very best. It's a great chance to show what they know and also lets me know where to put some focus. Please remind your kiddos to get lots of sleep and to stay focused.  You can go to ODE to see what the tests look like and try a few if you'd like.
We've started to write our fictional narratives...ask your kiddos about the fabulous stories we have been reading to show examples of character, imagery, setting, mood, and dialog.  This is our first big writing project, and it is taking us a bit of time!
As always, thanks for being a partner in your child's education!

Things are starting to settle in for Room 17.  We are getting our procedures down, expectations are understood, missions are set!  This week we will be setting our SMART goals for this 9 weeks.  We set one for reading, one or math, and one personal goal.  We keep them in our leadership notebooks.  This year, we will do student-led conferences.  I'll be sending home info on this when it gets closer to conference time.
In reading, we will focus on character, setting, and plot with several stories and books.  We continue to read Gooney Bird Green and work on our narratives.  We will finish up our unit on place value in math, and start to explore maps skills in social studies.  We have a new science series this year...hopefully we will start our unit on life cycles/animals this week as well.
I plan on sending home math homework this week.  For awhile, on Mondays I will send home a worksheet that reviews basic skills that third graders should know this year.  We start off with only completing part of it(the ones that are circled).  They have all week to complete it!  We check it on Fridays together.   Kiddos should still keep on reading and completing the reading log every night also.
 Students are working together as a team toward a classroom teamwork reward.  Every time we work as a team( all students are here, all students have homework, someone gives us a compliment, we rock an activity, we use the 7 habits like a champ!) I pull a number and color in our teamwork chart.  When we get 10 in a row, we have decided that our reward will be pizza and free computer time!  Can't wait!
Thanks for being a partner in your child's education!